Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has considered introducing minimum accessibility standards for customer service functions to ensure consumers can access a human representative where necessary.

Legislation provides the redress rights for consumers. Beyond this, the government does not generally intervene in how businesses choose to conduct their activities as this is a commercial decision.

Businesses have a legal obligation under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (CCRs), when trading with consumers, to provide contact information in a clear and comprehensible manner which is easily, directly and permanently accessible. This includes the business name, the geographical address where the business is established, a telephone number, and email address to allow consumers to make contact quickly and efficiently if there is a problem. Failure of a trader to provide the information required under the CCRs is a breach of contract and can result in a claim being brought by the consumer.